Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/69

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Aaron Worms

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

23 some coiniiKnts

(in

tin-

"En

Yaakob."

tlie hajr

Jacob Habib. The book was pubafter his death by his son Elihu in Constanti-

jjadif collection ot lislitd

nople, 107»-T«. ItiBLiotiRAPiiY



iliaiKi,

hn-Hamiim, No. 3U Stelnschncl4*5; Wiener, BilAiolhcca 1-riciHaii-

Mlrtiael, (>r

limn. No. li£M.

('(((.

ili-r,

Nil.



_ L. G.

AARONITES (AARONIDES). See Cohen. I'liii.-i AARONSBTJRG A post villaire situated in

lowiiNliip.

Iliiirii^

county,

Center

Pennsylvania,

A.vKox Levy in ITSlJ, and named for In.Iune, 177!), Aaron Levy Imufrlit of a Mr. liini. Wetzel a tract in Center county known as the Ale.Upon this he laid out and aniler Grant warranty. planned the town of Aaronsburfr. the town plan being recorded at Sunbury on October 4, 1786. A plot of ground known as Aaron's Siiuare was reserved by the founder for jiublie uses, and one of the streets was named Uiiehel's Way in honor of his wife. On November Hi, H.'^O. Levy gave to the tntstees of the Salem Evaiiirelieal Church a lot u|)oii which to erect a church and sehoolhouse. Aaronsburg is the first town in Pennsylvania (and probably in the United StAtes) that was laid out by and named after a Jew. founded

liy

Ab, Ninth Day of

Kokba war, thus making it a national rather than a religious ceremony. In the long period which is reflected in Talinudic literature the observance of the Ninth Day of Ab assumed a character of constantly growing sadne.s.s and asceticism. Still it seems that, about the end of the second century or at the beginning of the third, the celebration of the day had lost much of its gloom.

Judah ha Nasi was

in favor

Waning

of abolishing it altogether or, accordSignificance, ing lo another version, of lessening its severity when the feast has been postponed from Saturday to Sunday (Mcl' Ttli). .,,tendency to a IcNS a-i 'i >:-'

A

-

KlHLioriR.ki'iiv: Aarnn iii'i/, l)y Isatiella H. Rosen Imoh and Alirulmin S. Wolf llostmbaili. In I'ttlil. Am. Jiic. Hint. Soc.

No.

IKH,

-',

pi>, l.'iT-lii;i.

A.

W.

S,

R.

The Babylonian name adopted by the Jews for the fifth month of the year, corresponding to It part of the modern July and jiart of August. always consists of thirty days. The first day of Ab is, according to rabbinical tradition (' Seder 'Olam R." i.. R. II. 2*. 'i'D and Josephus (" Ant. " iv. 4, § 7), Concerning the anniversary of the death of Aaron. the fast on the Ninth and the feast on the Fifteenth, Tin see All, FiKTEKNTii OK, and An, Ninth of. Eighteenth of Ab was once a fast -day because in that day the western light {iier )iiii'iiriihi compHir Tosef., Sojah, .iii. 7) of the Temple candelabrum went out in the days of King Ahaz (po.s-sibly a refer ence to one of the Maccabean dynasty). See ('alendak. K. ATI





AB,

NINTH DAY OF

Day

set aside by tra to commemorale the T<iiiple by

Romans

(7(1);

a

movable fast fallingapproxinmtely in the licgiiming of August of the Gregorian calendar. In II Kings, S.

i»

it

is

stated that the

Temple

The Fall of was burned Jerusalem,

liflli

dali'

on the seventh day of the month: in Jer. xxxix. H no exact is given; while in Jer. lii. 12 the

liflli month is assigned as the date. In conneclion with the fill of Jerusidem three other fast (lavs were established at the same time as the

tenth

day of the

Ninth hay of Ab: these were the Tenth of Tcbet, when the siege began; the Seventeenth of Tammuz, wlien the first breach was made in the wall; and the Tlilril of Tishri. the siissinaled (II Kings,

day when Gkdai.iaii was

as-

xxv. 2."); Jer. xli. 2). From Zecli. vii. viii. li) it appears that after the erection of the Second Temple the custom of keeping these fast (lays was discontinued. Since the destruction of Jenisfdem ami of the Second Temple by the Romans, the four fast days have again been observed. It has 'udeed been suggested thai llie siicredness of the day is due to its being the anni.'5,

versary of the

fall

Tarmudie explanation of Zech. viii. 19 namely, that the four fast days would become feastdays during times of peace; on which Rashi remarks: "Peace means when the oppression of the Jews on accoiuit of their religion shall have ceased" (R. II. !></'). The growing strictness in the observance of mourning customsin connection with the Nii)th Day of Ab is especially marked in post-Talmudic times, able in the



dition for tasting and mourning, the (hsiruelion of Jerusalem and the Chaldeans (."iHli n.c.) and by the

XXV.

NliiUi |M "i Xi'. " J3dlsclit«CcreiD0ni&l.")

(Fti'IU Kirchii,.T,

of liethar at the end of the Bar

and particularly in the darkest period of Jewish life, from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth. Maimonides (twelfth century), in his code, says that the restrictions as to the eating of meat and the drinking of wine refer only to the last meal before fasting on the Eighth Day of Ab. if taken af ter noon, but before noon anything may be eaten 1{. Moses of Coney (thirleenlh cen(Ta'anit, v. 8). tury) claims that it is the universtil custom to refrain from meat and wine during the whole dav preceding the Ninth of Ab In the ("Semag," Hilkot Tishah be Ab." p Middle 24il/», ed. Venice). R. Joseph Cnro Ages. (sixteenth century) says some are aeeuslomed to alistain from meat and wine from the beginning of the week in which the Ninth Day of .VI) falls; and still olhei-s abstain Ihniughout the three weeks from the Sevenleenlh of Tammuz ("Shulhan '.ruk, Ond.i

navyitii."ei

.Vil).

The

sjime gnidnal